Brrr. Baby It's Cold Outside

Throughout the Midwest, states have experienced an icy blast that pierces to the very core. Snow and rain and rain and snow with periodic moments of chilly sunshine has been the situation of the Western Hemisphere. Oklahoma and Arkansas recently gained 3 feet of snow. Cities like Tulsa had major shortages with their snow supplies, spending over $2 million to hire contracts to create 68 pieces of equipment to help clear the snow. The situation in Oregon was so out of control, the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) declared Oregon in a state of emergency, allocating federal funds to buy the necessary equipment.

But even with this wallop, the recent weather is not at its worst. Here are the top 5 snow storms in the past decade.

1. In January 25, 2000, the city of Raleigh witnessed a drowning Christmas. Receiving on an average of 7 inches of snow per year, Christmas arrived with a drastic 2 feet of snow, completely incapacitating the city.

2. December 4, 2004: The Ohio Valley received about 40 inches of snow in just 30 hours, yielding a snow rate of almost 4 inches per hour! Businesses lost approximately 80% of their Christmas sales.

3. February 2007: A cold wave in New England barricaded eastern United States in a snow frenzy. Empty airplanes froze on the tracks, 900 flights were cancelled in Chicago's O'Hare airport, even the National Guard had to be called to save motorists stuck on a 50-mile iced over highway. In addition, a total of 300,000 homes lost power and the losses businesses felt is uncountable.

4. February 2010: As we all remember, the infamous DuPont Circle snow ball fight. With nearly 3 feet of snow in the nation's capital and a category 1 Hurricane bringing more, seasonal snowfall records were definitely broken. However, there was minimal damage, due to a well tracked snow system - all of Washington DC stopped in order to prepare for this blizzard.

5. Christmas 2010: And finally, we Californians finally get the brunt of the storms. With almost 17 feet of snow in the Sierra Nevada region, the Pacific weather system indicated an astonishing 20 inches of rain in areas of California in about a week. Although we all wistfully looked for snow, the storm moved on, establishing windy drifts that affected 70 million Americans. The storm cancelled 4,000 flights and even dropped some "thundersnow" - something I really want to see - flashes of lightening among the heavy snow fall.

Source: The Christian Science Monitor